Untitled
by BrockZor
Summary: A Fantasy story a long the lines of LOTD and Eragon.


Untitled

Jonathan Brock

CHAPTER ONE – The Kings Search

Shadows jumped from each corner of the room, from the ceiling to the floor and from the servant to the master. The flames of the candles flickered with the sighing wind seeping in through the bottom of the door. The only other noise was the tapping of long finger nails again solid oak. The large omnipotent throne sat towards the back of the room barley lit by the candles. Lined with tarnished gold and charred in many places the thrown had a somber tone to it only fit for a Dark King. There was a tall withered figure sitting in a slouched position with his head held down and his face covered in long gray and thin hair.

"What reason could you possibly have for me that would save your life you pitiful worm!" The King said with a deep scratchy voice, "I practically gave you a bread crumb trail to follow! The Great Oak Grove is the last fortification of the human rebels!"

A short and stout human stepped forward from the shadows standing very straight with his hands held firm behind his back. "Sir, all thirteen of our Dark Elf scouts, the top of their class, disappeared within days of the search. The Elves must be using ancient magic, none of our break spells are working. Nothing is working!"

"Ancient magic…" The King clenched his fist till his knuckles were white as bone. "YOU NEVER MENTIONED TO ME THEY MIGHT BE USING ANCIENT MAGIC!" in a fit of rage his arm stretched over four feet like rubber and wrenched on the neck of the servant. The human's body fought in a fear and desperation. The king's eyes rolled into the back of his head revealing a pair of black eyes. Fire grew from his shoulder and shot up his arm engulfing the man in a black flame. The flame was not burning him just covering him in sores, scabs, and boils, "Dishonor me again and I will not kill you but put the image of your kin dying over and over again in your head whenever you close your eyes, each time will be a different, more gruesome death! Do you understand me Cyrius!?"

Cyrius dropped to the ground on his knee's grinding his teeth in agony. "Of course sire!" He pulled himself across the floor to the throne and kissed the feet of his King.

"Now for this barrier problem…there's a mythical creature I have in mind that can get pass any spell barrier, even magic. But they are very dangerous, they attack your thoughts. In your thoughts they can be cutting your flesh and in the physical world your mind makes these injuries real. They will work for you if you offer them enough flesh. So you go find me some pitiful humans and I'll find a gremlin…"

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The Great Oak Grove is a miraculous fortress. The Great Oak's are the oldest trees of the earth, the original home of the first of eleven settlements. Homes were burrowed out of the top of the trees. Connecting the trees were a series of ladders, rope swings and zip lines. The elves lead the last of the humans into the grove so they wouldn't be extinguished by the Dark King.

They use the most ancient of magic to protect the forest, involving the sacrifice of an elder's eternal life. The ancient magic was a barrier between the innocent and the guilty, the good and the evil. As long as the humans remained within the boundaries of the spell they could not be detected, the great woods looked just like any other forest. The spell protected the forest against fire just passing off as a burnt forest by illusion.

The elves go through such great length to protect the humans because they know in order to over throw the Dark King they need strength of the humans. They work with individual humans that they can feel are destined to do great things, be powerful, and be great leaders. They want people who can pull the humans into a revolution, to take back over the land and restore the basic order of the planet.

One young man they had put a lot of attention into was named Serge, he was a talented young weapon smith. He devoted his time to studying Elven and Dwarven languages and metallurgy techniques. He discovered a way to combine the secrets of Elven, Dwarven, and human into one metal making the best equipment ever. The only problem is making the heat to melt them all together. The only weapon he was been able to create is a small dagger.

"Serge! Falhorn wanted me to let you know he needs you in the shop today!" the woman said as she closed the door after entering the hollowed out oak tree.

"Ugh…He had me down there all yesterday and the day before! He wants me to accidently slip and tell him the secret of Dwelved metal!" Serge sat on the foot stool lacing his boots up. "He better pay me for this day too, he paid me 12 clicks yesterday and 9 the day before!"

He grabbed his satchel sitting beside the door and slipped out the door. He walked along a long rope bridge looking around. Half way across the bridge he wrapped a thick leather strap around his hand and jumped over the side of the bridge. After free falling for about 100 feet and then throw the strap over a long rope and started to zip down toward the ground.

He was half way down when he saw something flying toward him. He threw his feet on the rope trying to slow down as quickly as possible. The friction from the rope was burning through the soles of his boots as he was tightening down on the rope.

The object was closing in on him and before he knew it he was struck in the head and was in a free fall toward the ground. After he hit the ground the last thing he remembers was seeing a little nasty looking creature shuffling toward him.

"Why `Ello Serge, I'm going to be torturing you this lovely morning!" Everything went dark after that, Serge thought he was dreaming but he could feel pain in his leg and arm like they broke from a long fall. He tried to wake up but he couldn't open his eyes, all he could see was darkness.

Now he could smell the relaxing aroma of the forest and the sound of a waterfall, he was in the Elven gateway, he know that's where he had to be! Maybe one of the elves found him and brought him back to the Elven city to be healed. His body relaxed and his mind relaxed thinking he was safe. Just then his nose started to burn with the smell of rotten flesh, he could feel insects crawling all over his body and a gust of ice cold wind hit his face.

"WHATS GOING ON? WHERE AM I, HELP ME PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!?" Serge screamed as he started to struggle trying to get up and open his eyes. As he started to struggle, barbed wire wrapped around his arm tightening down, cutting into his arm, "Whose doing this!?"

"Hello Serge, You can call me Grappler, I'm here so that you can tell me how to get into the Great Oak Grove, how to see past the ancient barrier." A deep and somber voice was speaking to Serge in his mind.

"No…no way! I would never tell you! What you need to do is let me go before I kick your ass!"Serge struggled even harder but the wire wrapped even tighter around his arms.

"Well Serge I'm going to be frank with you, if your mind wasn't so dimwitted it wouldn't be so easy to hold you down and torture you like this!" Serge felt a hot knife blade run across his chest splitting the skin.

"AHHHH, you bastard GET OUT OF MY HEAD, NOW!" Serge pulled up on the wires feeling them relax but just as he started to break free he fell two large spikes pierce his forearms pinning him down. Screaming a pure pain and agony he cried out, "I will never tell you how to get in so show me what you got you slug!"

"Well well boy you know your mythical creatures don't you, okay then let me really show you what I can make your mind do to your own body! Then we you body is contorted and lifeless I will feast upon you flesh!"

Serge took a deep breath trying to calm down and control his breathing and thoughts. He concentrated on the real sounds outside of his thoughts. He focused on the sound of the wind in the bushes around him. The sound of trees creaking as the wind moves the tops of them back and forth. He then spoke softly. "Sorry Grappler but I need you to mind your own business and GET OUT OF MY HEAD!'

"Silly boy, you cannot block me out, I will have you killing your own self in a matter of minutes! All humans have weak minds, they can't even think for themselves! They need the elves to protect them, Horc's to fight they're battles, the only thing they are good at are eating, crying and DYING!"

Serge felt the deathly cold wind turn into a rush of soothing heat and then grew into a blistering flame. He screamed as loud as he could. He was thrashing back and forth trying to pull the spikes up from the ground, trying to free his self. He was losing his mind nothing he did helped; it only made the pain worse and the spikes drive into the ground.

"Foolish boy! The more you try to struggle the less focus you have and the easier it will be for him to control your mind! Concentrate on something else, something peaceful and safe!" A powerful and peaceful voice spoke to him.

"Gado!? Is that you, where are you, HELP ME PLEASE!" Serge bellowed in desperation, "I can't take this anymore, I can't do it!"

"Serge listen, it's all in your head, you need to concentrate on something you feel is safe! Concentrate on that and forget about the pain." The voice now had a body, far away in an Elven temple with his hands clenched on a large diamond. Gado was the head of the Elven Overseers; they were the protectors of the humans. They duty was to constantly watch over them, keep them hidden from the Dark King. Gado had taken a special interest in Serge ever since he became a metal worker, "Now do it Serge forget about the pain think HAPPY THOUGHTS!"

Serge took a deep breath. Trying to block out the pain he started to think about the shop where he discovered how to make Dwelven metal, how he had spent a month finishing his dagger, perfecting it. He then started to think about the great water fall and the entrance to the Great Oak Grove…

"SERGE YOU NEED TO STOP NOW! YOU'RE GOING TO SHOW THEM THE WAY IN!" Gado knew it was too late, the gremlin had cracked him, made him think about the one thing that made him feel safe from anything. The images faded and he was on the ground looking up into the tree's. He couldn't move his arms or legs he was so tired and warn out.

He could feel something crawling out from his nose. He saw a slug slide down his cheek and burrow into the ground and disappear.6


End file.
